September saw fewer live coin auctions that August, however Heritage led the Long Beach sales followed by the Goldbergs. There is increasing demand for the fresh and/or rare as one national dealer puts it. Both types of material are in short supply in the current market as sellers are sitting on their hands waiting for the market prices to go up. Ironically, there’s little need for sellers to wait, because fresh material is realizing very strong premiums and often rendering published prices irrelevant as buyers are starved for interesting material.

Below is a recap of our pricing updates that can be found in October’s newsletters.

QUARTERLY I

Colonials:

Extensive updates for this series. Massachusetts silver, especially in higher grades, see downward adjustments. This is primarily due to frequent appearances in the market as supply outweighs demand. Mid-grade Continental dollars show price increases along with other select issues. Also, we have added pricing for VF20 coins.

Hawaiians:

We have fully reviewed this short but popular series, with increases for the better issues in multiple mint state grades. The scarce proof issues all see plus signs.

Seated Quarters:

The big news in this series is the addition of AU58 pricing. Like many other early series, a very attractive AU58 coin will sometimes sell for more than an MS61 or MS62 coin, making pricing this grade difficult. This should be kept in mind when evaluating coins at this grade level.

MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT

20th Century Gold:

This continues to be the most challenging area of U.S. coinage to evaluate. Common date generics were helped in the early part of September with a rising gold spot price however that rally has stalled. Better collector coins continue to fall through the cracks in auctions. Whether this is caused by excess supply, neglect on the part of dealers, selective buying habits, or other factors, the prices realized are real and astute buyers have come away with potential bargains.

BLUESHEET

NGC coins:

Sight-unseen bidding continues to help this end of the market.

CAC pricing:

Is moving from Greysheet to Bluesheet in the coming weeks and readers are encourage to add this subscription.